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July 20, 2011

G96: Red Sox 4, Orioles 0

Boston won for the 14th time in its last 17 games, as Jacoby Ellsbury hit two solo home runs, Adrian Gonzalez went 4-for-5, Dustin Pedroia extended his hitting streak to a career-high 18 straight games, Josh Reddick and Carl Crawford each had two hits and a walk, and Andrew Miller (5.2-2-0-6-3, 103) overcame a bout of wildness in the second inning, and held the Orioles to only two hits.

With one out in the bottom of the second, Miller walked the bases loaded, but escaped trouble when Craig Tatum hit into a 4-6-3 double play. A few minutes later, Ellsbury cranked his 14th home run of the year to put the Red Sox on the board.

In the fourth, Reddick singled, went to third on Crawford's double (and nearly ran through Tim Bogar's stop sign (no doubt assuming that doing the opposite of what Bogar is signaling is the wisest choice), and scored on Jason Varitek's grounder to second. Ellsbury homered to deep right-center in the seventh to make it 3-0.

Miller did not allow a hit until there was one out in the fifth.

Mark Hendrickson relieved Jake Arrieta (7-9-3-0-4, 111) in the eighth and could not retire any of the four batters he faced. Gonzalez singled, Kevin Youkilis hit a ground-rule double to left, Reddick walked to load the bases, and Crawford walked to force in a run.

(Hendrickson had similar trouble against the Red Sox exactly six years ago. On July 20, 2005, with L and I in attendance, Hendrickson started for the Devil Rays at Fenway Park. He faced only six batters, allowing four hits, two walks, and six runs. ... Tampa's middle infielders that afternoon? Julio Lugo and Nick Green!)

I have to do a better job of attacking the zone instead of trying to hit the corners the whole time. I just pitched around the plate, got behind on counts, threw pitches up in the zone, and you can't be successful that way.

42 comments:

July 20, 1948: Umpire Bill McGowan, sick of Senators pitcher Ray Scarborough complaining about his calls, throws a ball-and-strike indicator at him. Coupled with an incident the previous night, in which he threw a baseball at a player, McGowan is suspended for 10 games and fined $500.

Montage of Yankee Stadium, still and video: great moments from Ruth to DiMaggio to Munson. Sentimental shots of George if we can find some of him looking human.

Then, Jeter: a couple of his great moments, interspersed with Monument Park past and present, statuary and and plaques. The message: Jeter belongs with this group.

Then, extreme closeups of a STATUE of Jeter: his composed face, the back of his jersey with name and the iconic "2", a closeup of his glove poised to reach out to his left, the "C" on his jersey, the bill of his cap shading his face from the sun...

The camera pulls out and we see Jeter's STATUE isn't in Monument Park at all, but standing at shortstop. We pull out further and see a split second of a Baltimore Orioles scrub grounding the ball towards the left side.

A medium shot of the STATUE falling heavily to it's left, creating a huge divot in the dirt as the weak grounder sneaks by underneath.

There's a huge difference in my mind between 1.5 up and 2.5 up. 1.5 means you're a day away from being in a virtual tie. But 2.5 is like 3 but not quite. I guess it's psychological, but anyway, GO RAYS tonight.